Navigating the technology madness

The role of Digital technology in marketing is evolving every fifteen minutes! We are getting blinded by the speed of the change. However, most companies do not view technology as an integral part of marketing though technology is affecting consumer behaviour and their decision making process in a big way.  

Digital technology plays a key role in solving complex marketing problems by adding science to the art of marketing . It provides the intelligence and the instrumentation to leverage the full potential of the interconnected audience. 

As lesser and lesser consumers believe what the companies have to say, the traditional sales funnel is giving way to the influence loop. It is  no longer good enough for the marketer to just create awareness and lead up to an intent but it is becoming critical to influence  reviews, recommendations and feedbacks - which forms the core of the decision making in the purchase process today.

But providing compelling content which has high viral potential is only half the story.

The role of the marketer today is to also make available friendly user interface and technology enabled conversation mechanisms in the consumers' devices of choice. The easier it is to discover, blog, tweet, post, share or just 'like' your content, more the chances of it making it to the conversations and the influence loop.



Not only that, it is also important for marketers to keep an eye on how the consumers interact with their devices.  While we know multiple screens are being used simultaneously, the interesting nugget to look for is which screen serves the best purpose for a particular action. Is the mobile screen more conducive for e-commerce or is it the tablet?

Moreover, device specific analytics is also another rich area for intelligence about your consumers. The device usage habit is the new age face reader which can tell a lot about your most profitable segments. To cash in on the information - marketers need to read, compare and analyse the brand's interaction with its consumers via different  screens, browsers, operating systems, social media tools, apart from the company's website and other brand owned web presence, to arrive at a comprehensive marketing strategy. .  

While it is important to have the right conversation going, it is equally important to have a sharply focused device strategy as increasingly this is going to play a very big role in the influence loop. The sooner one gets a hang of technology, the easier it will get to connect with the seemingly complex and ambiguous digital consumer.